196 HIGHWATER MARK. 



with the end of this straw. Instantly its charms are 

 turned in, and packed away from the rude insult, and 

 the pillar begins to shrink into a round button, and 

 to retire within the friendly shelter of the encompass- 

 ing roots. But lo ! as it goes a fine white thread 

 shoots out from the surface of the body to the length 

 of a couple of inches ; another, and yet another ! half 

 a dozen threads dart from so many points, and stream 

 away through the clear water, or intertangle with 

 each other, or curl up in spiral coils and irregular 

 contortions. 



It is thus that the anemone seeks to avenge the 

 affront that it has received. These threads are so 

 many valiant and skilful warriors posted at the battle- 

 ments and loopholes of her castle ; or rather her light 

 horse, which, issuing from a hundred sally-ports, 

 scour the surrounding region in search of the insolent 

 foe. And woe betide the foe, be he slug, shrimp, 

 worm, or fish, who incautiously comes within the 

 range of these archers ! they will pierce him through 

 and through ! and their shafts are poisoned with as 

 fatal a venom as ever issued from the unerrring In- 

 dian's gravatana on the banks of the Amazon. 



These apparently simple threads, that you might 

 well mistake for fragments of sewing-cotton dropped 

 by a lady's scissors, are master-pieces of ingenious con- 

 trivance and wondrously-elaborate mechanism. Death, 

 nay, myriads of deaths are sealed up in every inch of 

 this thread ; certain, inevitable death. It is the veri- 

 table thread of the Parcce, to the tenants of the waters. 



